On the old-tech side, Sharp squeezes a massive 3,080 mAh battery into the 5-inch phone, only slightly smaller than the pack Samsung fits to the larger Galaxy Note II. With Sharp’s “Eco Tech” settings enabled – which seems to involve throttling the 1.7GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro quadcore processor (APQ8064) at times – the phone will supposedly last through two days of use.

However, the CG Silicon display also weighs in with some improvements of its own, using continuous grain silicon for the backplane rather than the amorphous silicon more traditionally found in LCD TFT panels. That, Sharp says, makes for a thinner and better-performing display, with higher quality graphics and reduced power consumption.

Interestingly, Sharp sees CG Silicon technology as a way to eventually build an entire computer on a single sheet of glass, in effect creating smartphones and mobile devices that were one, fused gadget rather than a selection of sandwiched individual parts. Exactly when that will be feasible remains to be seen, however; Sharp has created demo rigs with processors embedded into the substrate, but commercial applications haven’t been begun yet.

Instead, we get the 206SH and the 5-inch, 443ppi display Sharp showed off at CEATEC last year. Since then, the company has slapped on a touchscreen layer, of course, though the smaller number of overall layers should still pay dividends on display visibility.

Sharp has a track record of trialling new panel technology in devices for the Japanese market. Last year, the company released the AQUOS TAB SHT21, a 7-inch Android tablet using an IGZO display rather than LCD TFT or OLED. IGZO promises either roughly twice the runtime as an LCD panel at the same brightness, or as much as twice the brightness for outdoor usability, though manufacturing yields have meant the tech is yet to comprehensively spread.

The Sharp AQUOS Phone Xx SoftBank 206SH will go on sale in late June. It has a 13.1-megapixel camera with f/1.9 optics, 1-Seg digital TV, LTE, and runs Android 4.2, while wireless options include WiFi a/b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth 4.0 along with infrared. It’s also waterproof, and will be offered with a desktop dock for charging and entertainment use.

A new USB air purifier has turned up from Sharp called the Sharp IG-DK1A Humidified Plasmacluster Ion Generator. That is a long name for device that has a pretty simple function, this device is designed to humidify the air you breathe and create lots of ions. Negatively charged ions are used by a lot of air purifying devices to attract dirt particles and other tiny particles floating in the air.

Once those particles of dirt, pollen, and dander are attracted to these negative ions they clump together and then fall to the ground. The particles might not be physically filtered from the air you breathe, but my removing them from floating around in the air you’re much less likely to breathe them in. One of the biggest upsides to this sort of air purifying technology is that there are no filters to be replaced.

This particular air purifier is able to create quite a few negatively charged ions to the tune of 25,000 ions/cm3. The air purifier measures 124 mm x 182 mm x 166 mm and weighs 820 g. The device also has a small 300 mL water reservoir that consumes water at 30 mL an hour. That small reservoir is used to humidify the air. The internal fan of this device can also be powered using a normal AC adapter if you don’t want to plug in near your computer. The air purifier sells for $220.

[via EverythingUSB]

Foxconn wants to be one of Sharp’s investors as well, and the two parties have been in talks for quite a while. However, Sharp had stated at a press conference held on March 14th that talks with Foxconn are falling through. Foxconn responded by saying that its trying everything it can to secure a deal with Sharp. The two have been very satisfied with their joint LCD fabrication plant located in Sakai, Japan.

Many have speculated that Sharp is hesitant in sealing any deal with Foxconn because it’s currently looking to obtain loans from banks. With Samsung’s and Qualcomm’s investments behind it, Sharp believes it has a much higher chance to convince banks that giving it a loan is a great idea. With the bank loans, Sharp doesn’t necessarily need another investor on its back telling it what to do.

Sharp’s business is very important to many manufacturers. It provides displays for a variety of technology, including laptops, tablets, and mobile phones. Apple had spent $2.3 billion more on Sharp’s displays than it had expected in Q4 2012. Horace Dediu, an analyst whose primary focus is Apple and mobile phones, stated that if Sharp did file for bankruptcy, Apple’s production capacity may be jeopardized. He believes that “Apple’s late and unprecedented expenditure was to secure this asset.” Sharp’s investors have helped the company stay up-and-running, despite the huge losses it had suffered last November.

[via Tom's Hardware]

According to the sources, the talks are in late stages, with Samsung likely to make the investment. Aside from the obvious gains, this partnership would be noteworthy on several levels, bringing together two companies from rivaling countries, both with their own consumer electronics powerhouses. Samsung is a Korean company, while Sharp is a Japanese company.

This would come at a time when Sharp has both suffered financially and has seen a drop in production of displays for the iPad as demand is refocused to the iPad mini, a device Sharp does not supply components for. Sharp’s spokesperson offered a decidedly ambiguous response to the rumors, reports Reuters: “This news is not something that has been announced by the company.”

Word has it the deal will officially be announced sometime today. This follows an investment into Sharp by Qualcomm late last year to the tune of $120 million. For its part, the two companies would join forces to develop energy-efficient IGZO-technology displays. Stay tuned, and we’ll be sure to keep you updated when we know more.

[via Reuters]

The ICC Purios is the world’s first THX-Certified Ultra High-Definition television, and it sports a 3840×2160 resolution, and it’ll be available in Japan starting in February at a cost of 2.6 million yen, or roughly $31,000. We’re not sure when the TV set will make its way stateside, but you can bet that only the wealthy will be able to buy one these suckers.

The ICC Purios is Sharp’s answer to Sony‘s 84-inch UHDTV and a similar 55-inch model from Toshiba, which are priced at 1.68 million yen ($25,000) and 750,000 yen ($9,000), respectively. The Purios is definitely a bit more expensive than its competitors, but it proves that you’ll have to pay a premium in order to get one.

The Consumer Electronics Association renamed 4K to Ultra High Definition a couple months back, and in order to qualify as UHD, a television must have a minimum resolution of 3,840 pixels horizontally and 2,160 vertical pixels. It also must have at least one 4K-capable digital input and display 4K programming natively with no upconverting. We’ll no doubt be seeing some of these new UHD TVs at CES 2013, so be sure to join us during the second week in January for all the action.

First, a recap: according to this week’s chatter, there’s a fresh batch of TV hardware headed from Foxconn to Apple’s labs, with the company having gone from internal development to asking its manufacturing partners to whip up a prototype or two. Specifications of said-prototypes are unclear, but Sharp – wavering, despite a rumored $2bn life-raft from Apple already – is said to have supplied the panels, possibly using IZGO technology.

Rumors of Apple’s ambitions in the living room aren’t new. Behind perhaps iPhone speculation and whispers of an iPad mini, the idea of an Apple television has persisted like no other. It’s also, if the insiders are to be believed, been an ongoing project within Apple for some time now.

Work, in fact, has been occupying some of Apple’s team for “a number of years” the WSJ report admits, and it’s not the first we’ve heard of Sharp involvement. Analysts were claiming a love-in between the Japanese company’s screens and Cupertino back in 2011, after all.

Is anything different this time around? Hon Hai’s chairman investing in a chunk of Sharp’s large-scale LCD production facility adds an interesting mini-twist to proceedings, with the cash injection giving Foxconn first call on up to half of the plant’s panel output. So far that droit de seigneur has benefited Vizio, but there’s no reason Apple couldn’t poach the panels for its own purposes.

Frankly, though, it would be more of a surprise if Apple wasn’t working on some sort of TV development. The existing Apple TV may look like a sales-afterthought in comparison to iPhone and iPad shipments of late, but that doesn’t mean Apple can afford to ignore the living room. What it will need to convince itself, however, is that biting off an extra degree of complexity and cost – providing the screen and the tuners and everything else, rather than just a simple box that plugs in via HDMI – is warranted by the potential returns.

Are the minimal Apple TV sales because it’s not part of an integrated television set, or are they because the company is still yet to differentiate itself in the smart TV segment? The STB may well fit in neatly with the rest of the iTunes ecosystem, but without App Store access there’s really no great advantage to Apple TV versus, say, a Roku box. The basics of Netflix and other streaming services are accommodated and the interface, though slick enough, isn’t considerably better than what rivals offer.

Jumping into segments for the sake of it isn’t Apple’s style. Is the company cooking up prototypes? Undoubtedly, and it probably has been for a while. Is there a fair chance those prototypes will end up on storeroom shelves next to Apple’s netbook prototypes? Definitely, yes. In the end, the TV industry doesn’t have a problem with hardware – sets from Sony, Samsung, LG, and others are capable of great image quality, after all – but with software and usability, and Apple needn’t recreate the wheel to tackle that.

According to the whispers, Apple has been focusing on “a few designs for a large-screen, high-resolution TV” and the rumors have regained steam after CEO Tim Cook’s comments that TV is “an area of intense interest” earlier this month. The secretive chief exec refused to comment any further, however; “I can’t say more than that” he told NBC News.

Rumors earlier this week, meanwhile, suggested that Apple was experimenting with 3D technologies for big-screen TVs, while research indicates there’s an appetite among consumers for an Apple-branded model. In fact, a fair number would apparently be willing to pay a 20-percent premium for the privilege.

However, just as has presumably been the case with earlier prototypes, Apple could well decide not to continue development of the TV sets. The tipping factor this time around might be how much – or how little – it has to pay for LCD displays themselves, following a significant investment by Foxconn into Sharp. According to that deal, Foxconn gets first-grab at half of the panels the $10bn Sakai facility produces.

Currently, Foxconn is taking advantage of that position to piece together 60-inch Vizio sets, but the company’s long-standing relationship with Apple makes it the obvious choice should production of an Apple television get the green-light.

Hardware is only part of the story, however. Apple’s relationships with content owners and cable companies are terse, insiders say, with traditional providers wary of allowing the Cupertino firm into the segment for fear that it will quickly dominate as it did in digital music. Apple TV, the $99 set-top box already in its third generation, remains a bit-player in the company’s range; however, there are whispers that a new version with live TV functionality is also being considered.

What’s believed to be holding that up – and, presumably, doing the same for an actual Apple television – is that reluctance of content owners to actually open up their catalogs to Apple’s hardware. The company has attempted to tackle that with deals in the past, but has been rejected.

Exactly what form the Apple television would take is uncertain, though it’s expected to use Siri for navigating through channels and program guides, rather than the traditional button-encrusted remote. A Sharp IGZO display is also likely, using the company’s brighter, more energy-efficient panel technology.

Those displays will be developed and produced at Sharp’s LCD panel plan in Yonago city, Japan. The technology will be a combination of Sharp’s indium gallium zinc oxide manufacturing, which uses a different semiconductor for reducing power consumption and increasing potential pixel density, and Qualcomm subsidiary Pixtronix’s micro electro mechanical systems, which use so-called “digital shutters” to improve picture quality while also dropping power demands.

Qualcomm acquired Pixtronix at the start of the year, though at the time it was expected that the company would use MEMS in its own mirasol low-power screens for ereaders. However, mirasol was sidelined midway through the year, with production plans frozen amid low yields, and Qualcomm instead exploring technology licensing instead.

“MEMS display to be developed jointly by the two companies is a display using ultrafine process technology and existing display manufacturing infrastructure” Sharp said of today’s deal, “with features including high color reproducibility and low-power consumption.” Sharp and Pixtronix have already been working together for the past 18 months.

Sharp is hoping the deal – which is expected to see it earn Qualcomm’s cash piecemeal, as different stages toward commercialization are reached – will jumpstart its small- to medium-sized LCD business. However, the company warns, while development and initial investment will begin immediately, the point at which actual production will begin is unclear; Sharp says it will only take that step when it makes financial and technological sense.

Meanwhile, Qualcomm and Sharp are keeping the door open to possible future collaboration, including working together on chipsets.

According to the insiders, Sharp is hoping to squeeze up to $240m from Intel or Dell, though its ambitions for Qualcomm investment are more modest. The display firm has been mired in ongoing negotiations with Foxconn/Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. for several months, with the firms needing to reach a conclusion by March 2013 but uncertainty around Sharp’s value stalling the deal.

Unofficially, however, a Sharp executive speaking to the newspaper said that while the companies continue to talk, “the unpredictability of its earnings are hindering” the likelihood of a deal. Others familiar with the deal have said that Sharp is laying on hyperbole about IGZO’s promise as a key negotiating point, routinely describing it as “potentially game-changing technology.”

That game-changer comes down to how IGZO works, replacing the substrate material among other changes, and in doing so reducing power consumption and increasing pixel density. That makes for displays that can offer the same brightness as regular LCD but with lesser power demands, or alternatively use the same power as traditional panels but for a much brighter picture, useful for outdoor applications.

IGZO production, however, has struggled to meet Sharp’s goals, and so far the panels are only showing up in a limited way in tablets and phones for the Japanese market. However, Sharp claims it is ready to offer a 32-inch IGZO panel that runs at an impressive 3840 x 2160 resolution, and which could well find its way into future Apple products according to some industry speculation.

In fact, Apple involvement in Sharp’s ongoing business has been the source of display channel muttering for some time. One analyst has suggested that a $2bn blip on Apple’s most recent financial results sheet was in fact a helping hand to the Japanese firm, potentially bringing forward future panel orders onto the books so as to help shore up the supplier.

Sharp has declined to comment on whether it is in negotiations with companies outside of Foxconn, and neither Dell, Qualcomm, nor Intel would comment on the rumors. It’s possible, however, that the move to widen negotiations – or, indeed, the leaks that such a move is being considered – is a tactical one to increase pressure on Foxconn management.

Windows Phone 7.8 will be hitting handsets in early 2013, though we’re not sure of an exact release date at the moment. A couple of unlucky SMS spammers have been hit with a hefty fine after their company was accused of sending out millions of annoying text messages, but they claim that they had permission to send all of those text messages to the recipients. Google announced today that it has purchased Incentive Targeting, a company that focuses on helping advertisers deliver coupons to consumers more effectively.

Apple parts providers will be increasing their yields in Q1 2013, which should help with those stock shortages we keep hearing about, and today we got our first glimpse at Will.i.am’s new line up of iPhone accessories. There’s a new Facebook bug that is adding users to groups they left long ago, and HTC has brought on a new CMO to retool the company’s marketing efforts. TSMC might not be able to keep up with demand once Apple starts relying on the company for its CPUs, and Ballistic has a new line up of cases for the iPhone, Nokia Lumia 920, and Samsung Galaxy S III. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said that the Grand Theft Auto series is still special because it doesn’t release annually, and Sharp unveiled its new IGZO 32-inch 4K display today.

Finally tonight, we have a couple of reviews for you check. First up is Craig Lloyd with his review of the HTC Windows Phone 8X from Verizon, while Chris Burns gives us his review of the T-Mobile Nexus 4. That does it for tonight’s evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the rest of your night folks!

The 32-inch display with the 3840×2160 resolution works out to 137ppi, which doesn’t quite match the Retina MacBook Pro‘s 220ppi, but the display should look pretty stunning once it becomes available. It’s expected to released in February 2013 in Japan for a price of 450,000 yen, but no word on release dates for the US and other countries — we should hear more on that front at CES in January.

The display has both HDMI and DisplayPort inputs, and Sharp claims that it’s the industry’s thinnest 4K monitor at just 35mm thick. That’s thanks to the company’s IGZO display technology, which is named after the indium gallium zinc oxide semiconductor on which the technology is based. The company plans to implement the new tech in a wide range of devices in the future, including smartphones and tablets.

IGZO is also a great technology because it uses less power than current LCD displays and it can prolong battery life in mobile devices. 4K displays are still in their infancy, and they most likely won’t hit mainstream for another couple of years, and with the prices the way they are for 4K screens, you can expect to wait a few years before you could really afford one in your living room or on your desk.

The vacuum has rotating “whiskers” to pull out dust from corners, and a HEPA filter to clean air before it’s vented. It uses a combination of brushes and suction for cleaning, while navigation is via ultrasonics, which Sharp claims is more accurate and less easily confused by glass surfaces than infrared. Up to 50 minutes of runtime is promised from a 2hr charge, and the cleaner can automatically find its way back to its docking station when it’s running low.

It’s the control options that potentially set the RX-V60 above rivals, however. The vacuum can react to spoken commands, and report its own status verbally; however, those of a geekier nature are likely to prefer using the Cocorobo Square app for Android or iOS. That allows for remote control of the cleaner through the home, as well as viewing of photos the ‘bot takes with its integrated camera.

Strap on the Navi extra to the vacuum’s USB port, however, and the app also allows you to control your smart home kit remotely. Sharp says it plans to update the Navi attachment to support equipment from other brands in due course. Initially, though, it will operate Sharp TVs, air conditioners, LED lights, and a Sharp ion fan.

The DigInfo team got their hands on the new vacuum and its remote adapter, which will go on sale in mid-December in Japan. The RX-V60 robot vacuum will be priced at the equivalent of around $900, while the Navi add-on will be the equivalent of around $190.

While the phone’s display is impressive and certainly its most alluring feature, the rest of the Aquos specs leave a bit to be desired. Inside you’ll find a Qualcomm 8260A dual-core 1.5GHz processor and an Adreno 225, which is disappointing given the phone’s high-end screen. You’ll have a lot of display real estate, but not enough hardware power to break out the big games.

The handset runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and while it has 3G connectivity, it does not support LTE. There’s 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal memory, with some reviewers stating that the device also has a microSD expansion slot. The battery is ample sized to provide some decent usage time at 2,100mAh.

According to Hi-Tech, the phone has a recommended retail price of 21,990 Russian Rubles, which is about $700USD. This phone follows the SH530U smartphone that Sharp recently announced. This handset likewise features a 5-inch display, but has very lackluster specs, with a resolution of 800 x 480, a 1GHz MediaTek processor, 512MB of RAM, and Android 4.0.

[via Hi-Tech]

After a few record quarters, $2bn may not seem like a vast amount in the context of Apple’s cash flow. However, it’s how that $2bn was recorded and summarized that is prompting speculation of a helping hand for Sharp. Apple’s financial report said that overall expenditures were predominantly classed as “product tooling, manufacturing process equipment and infrastructure” but that cash payments were $2bn lower, indicating that Apple had “paid” for the extra in some other way.

“Circumstantial evidence points to the asset being production equipment (or even a whole plant) previously owned by Sharp. Sharp is a key supplier of screens to Apple but is also in financial distress. Sharp has also been the object of an intended investment by Foxconn [Hon Hai]. That deal fell through as Sharp’s finances deteriorated. My guess is that these attempts to shore up Sharp are directed by Apple to ensure both continuity of supply and a balanced supplier base (offsetting Samsung, another supplier.)” Horace Dediu, Asymco

Pumping $2bn into Sharp by purchasing a plant and paying for it in pre-ordered components is one possibility, Dediu suggests – though he couches it in the warning that it’s “strictly hypothetical” and based on evidence “hinting at an explanation” – and would represent an Apple stance that a reliable source of components that weren’t entirely from Samsung is better than $2bn in the bank. Should Sharp collapse, as its recent financial performance has indicated is a possibility, its production lines might be sold off and the supply of displays for key Apple products halted.

“I believe that Apple’s late and unprecedented expenditure was to secure this asset. I further believe that the financing for this deal was done through a swap of “pre-orders”. Stepping even further into the hypothesis, I believe Apple arranged to move a Sharp screen production line onto its books and “paid” for it through a pre-payment of components. This being a pre-payment it would be in the form of an “off balance sheet” commitment” Horace Dediu

It’s worth remembering that, if the situation did in fact pan out this way, Apple isn’t spending any money it didn’t envisage paying out in the longer-term. Instead, the company would basically have agreed to pay in advance so as to keep Sharp’s creditors at bay.

Sharp had been the subject of acquisition chatter by Foxconn, but stumbles in the display company’s performance supposedly soured that possibility. However, Apple is increasingly reliant on Sharp – as well as AUO and LG Display – as an alternative source of components to Samsung, a company Apple is increasingly looking (with mixed success) to dilute as a key supplier.

[via Fortune]

In terms of basic specifications, the AQUOS TAB SHT21 doesn’t stray too far from the Android crowd. Running Ice Cream Sandwich on Qualcomm’s 1.5GHz dualcore MSM8960 processor, paired with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, the Sharp-made tablet includes 4G LTE, WiFi a/b/g/n (2.4/5GHz), Bluetooth 4.0, and 1-Seg digital TV – exactly what you’d expect for a new slate in the Japanese market.

However, it’s the IGZO screen that’s the real talking point here. Most of the time, it looks just like a regular LCD IPS panel, only it’s sipping roughly half the power. Crank up the brightness, however, and it’s significantly brighter at its maximum than a traditional tablet; we weren’t able to take the SHT21 outdoors, but from what we’ve seen we’ve little doubt that you could comfortably use it without having to shade the screen in strong sunlight.

In the hand, it’s easier to hold than our other Japanese Android tablet of preference, the NEC Medias Tab UL, and the digital stylus works well for navigation and sketching. Android 4.0 runs smoothly, even with KDDI’s customizations, and overall it’s slim and lightweight. KDDI is yet to confirm pricing, though we know the SHT21 will hit shelves in December.

With battery technology proving to be the laggard in today’s digital arms race, technologies like IGZO are becoming increasingly important to squeeze runtime out of devices without weighing them down. So far nobody at Sharp is saying when IGZO panels will show up on devices outside of Japan, but we’re hoping it’s sooner rather than later.

If you’ve not been keeping up with the minutiae of screen technology, IGZO is named after the indium gallium zinc oxide used in the LCD, rather than the more traditional amorphous silicon layer. Since it’s more efficient for electron mobility – roughly 40x more so, Sharp claims – the pixels can be smaller, and thus demand less backlighting.

Device manufacturers can either take advantage of that reduced backlight requirement to fit smaller batteries but maintain typical runtimes, squeeze extra runtime out of regularly sized batteries, or provide high-brightness “outdoor visibility” modes.

In the case of the new KDDI tablet, it seems there are various modes that can be switched between, depending on your priorities with the tablet: visibility or longevity. The slate also supports digital pen input, is waterproof and dustproof, and includes 4G LTE, WiFi a/b/g/n (2.4/5GHz), Bluetooth 4.0, and 1-Seg digital TV, all in something 106 x 190 x 8.9 mm and 280g.

There are twin cameras – 8-megapixel on the back, VGA upfront – and Full HD video recording, and the SHT21 runs Android 4.0 with a custom UI on Qualcomm’s MSM8960 1.5GHz dualcore processor with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage (plus a microSDXC card slot).

Sales will kick off in Japan in December, with pricing yet to be confirmed.

There’s also a 1.5GHz quadcore APQ8064 processor, WiFi, NFC, LTE, and a front-facing 1.2-megapixel camera, along with a waterproof and dustproof chassis. As with so many Japanese devices, there’s 1-Seg and NOTTV digital TV reception, and a 2,320 mAh battery to keep it all running.

IGZO displays use indium gallium zinc oxide instead of amorphous silicon in the LCD, a more efficient material – 40x more efficient for electron mobility, in fact – that allows for smaller pixels. Those smaller pixels require roughly a third less backlighting, which cuts down on power consumption in normal situations, or allows for a standard backlight to produce a brighter picture.

NTT DoCoMo also says that the SH-02E supports pen input, and the narrow side bezels mean the phone is just 68mm wide. The display also supports a new audio system which vibrates the whole panel to transmit sound directly into the ear.

The SH-02E will go on sale in November or December this year, though there’s no word on whether a launch outside of Japan is planned.

Take a hands-on look at a collection of devices we’ve seen at CEATEC, starting with the NEC Medias Tab UL. We’ve got Sharp’s 5-inch 1080p eyes-on, a KOA Muscle Suit exoskeleton hands-on, and a look at the Sharp Cocorobo @ Home virtual management system. We got to see the new Toyota COMS golf cart and the strange NEC PapeRo telecommunications robot as well as the Toyota Smart INSECT electric vehicle too!

We’ve got a column asking what happened to the HTC Hero Device strategy that you’ll want to take a peek at. There’s a new project in the works called MoviePass that’ll allow you to see unlimited movies for a monthly fee – and it’s through your iPhone, no less.

The HTC One X+ and One VX have been announced for AT&T along with the Windows Phone 8X. We’ve got hands-on with the HTC One X+ and has hands-on with the Windows Phone 8X as well last week.

The Next Learning Thermostat is getting thinner by the month. The Acer Aspire S7 Ultrabook line is coming with a touchscreen and Windows 8 on October 26th. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is once again cleared for sale in the USA, and the iPhone 5 has been hit with an 8 patent lawsuit.

Fewer layers mean the image appears closer to the top level of glass. There’s no touch layer in place yet – this is display-only right now – but we can already picture just how vivid and bright the Sharp panels will be when paired with advanced optical lamination touchscreen bonding technology.

Sharp is keeping its customer details close to its chest, and the company wouldn’t say who it was talking with regarding actually putting the new 5-inch display into products. Although the company is already an Apple supplier, right now the Cupertino firm doesn’t have a 5-inch device in its range (and the much-rumored iPad mini is expected to be larger than that).

Still, whoever ends up with this new LCD is getting an impressive screen indeed. Just running through some demos of video playback and mapping showed how useful high-resolution graphics can be on a mobile device.

We’re talking the whole kit and kaboodle – air conditioning, fans, kitchen appliances, outdoor lights, indoor lamps. All of it can be controlled remotely through Cocorobo @ Home. You can even link your family’s phones, televisions, and tablets to the Cocorobo @ Home, which will show you where in the house everyone is.

Need to get a little vacuuming done? You’ll be pleased to know that Sharp has a new vacuum designed to work with Cocorobo @ Home to. Rather confusingly, the vacuum itself is called Cocorobo, and in addition to being controlled through the Cocorobo @ Home app, you can also control the Cocorobo vacuum through simple voice commands. For instance, you can ask Cocorobo – which looks similar to an iRobot Roomba vacuum and features a Sharp plasmacluster air purifier – how much battery it has remaining, or how much space is left in the dust bin.

It seems that Cocoboro @ Home will work with other non-Sharp products as well, as users can hook up their TANITA scale with Cocorobo @ Home to track their weight loss. You can also set up Cocorobo @ Home to remind you when you forget to weigh in. All of this sounds really awesome, but don’t expect it to arrive in your household for a long time – Cocorobo @ Home is still a concept product, and it sounds like it might be a while before it makes it to market. Still, we’ll be following it throughout the development process, so keep it here at SlashGear for more information.

The new 5-inch panels will feature a resolution of 1920 x 1080, which results in a crazy pixel density of 443ppi. To compare that with the best smartphones on the market right now, the Samsung Galaxy S III’s 4.8-inch display has a resolution of 1280 x 720 and a pixel density of 306ppi. The iPhone 5‘s 4-inch screen has a 1136 x 640 resolution and a pixel density of 326ppi.

The new LCD panel includes a new pixel design and an improved manufacturing process to achieve such an extremely high pixel density. Modern CG-Silicon technology allow the screens to display crisper text, super-clear maps and more realistic HD images. We can only imagine what kind of image quality this will bring to mobile devices when it hits the market for the first time.

Sharp produces some of the 4-inch screens for the iPhone 5, which already boasts an impressive pixel density that results in a crisp and clear display. Last week it was reported that Sharp was behind on production for the iPhone 5′s screen, but company officials have said that they’re right on schedule and can cope with high demand.

Production for the 1080p 5-inch displays began at the end of September in Kameyama, Japan, and full-scale production of the new display is expected to begin sometime this month. Frankly, we’re excited to see which smartphone manufacturers will use the new displays, and whether or not we’ll see them in upcoming Samsung Galaxy devices or even HTC‘s One series.

All of you Apple dissenters will definitely want to watch the iPhone 5 get destroyed by some powerful lasers, and Sharp reassured today that it’s making plenty of iPhone 5 screens, which are rumored to be the bottleneck on production. Today we got a closer look at the vibrator inside the iPhone 5, and learned that it costs less than $1 to charge your iPhone for an entire year. Microsoft has assured that it has tested Windows 8 thoroughly ahead of next month’s launch, and it seems that Kodak will soon be dropping out of the inkjet printer business.

Google now lets YouTube creators re-download their movies in their original format, and the FCC has approved an auction to reclaim broadcast TV spectrum. HP has launched Open webOS 1.0, and Amazon gave us a little video detailing the technology behind the Kindle Paperwhite. Good news for all of you Call of Duty fans: Modern Warfare 3 is free-to-play on Steam this weekend, and there are rumors floating around that HP will soon be jumping back into the mobile market.

Microsoft was spotted lamenting the lack of highly skilled technology workers today, and Notch is refusing to certify Minecraft for Windows 8, despite Microsoft’s requests. For the first time ever, Instagram has beat Twitter when it comes to daily mobile users, Sony has invested $640 million into slowly dying camera company Olympus, and a new BlackBerry 10 video gives us our first look at RIM’s new QWERTY device. Finally tonight, Chris Davies takes an up-close look at RIM’s Q2 results, which were posted yesterday, while Chris Burns has a new review of the movie LOOPER, starring Bruce Willis and Jason Gordon-Levitt. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, enjoy your weekend everyone!

Reports said that Sharp was falling behind three weeks before the iPhone 5′s launch, struggling to improve low production yields. It turns out, the iPhone 5′s 4-inch IPS display is extremely difficult to produce at high yields, which raised the question of whether or not Apple would give more money to the screen manufacturer in return for faster production.

However, it turns out that Apple doesn’t rely on Sharp alone to produce screens for their iPhones. They also buy screen units from Japan Display and LG, which reports say that most iPhone 5 units that were sold on launch weekend were using either Japan or LG displays. Sharp and Japan Display do not publicly admit that Apple is one of their clients, but Apple has said in the past that it relies on both manufacturers to produce iPhone screens.

The iPhone 5 sold more than 5 million units on launch weekend, which outpaces the 4 million units of the iPhone 4S’s opening weekend last year. On the fourth day of the iPhone 5′s existence, Apple said it ran out of its initial supply and a number of orders were pushed back into October. Reuters also reported that Japan Display was capable of producing 8 million iPhone displays per month, while Sharp was estimated to be able to produce 6 million per month.

The company also happens to be sitting on ¥1.25 trillion of interest-bearing debt. When things went bad at Sharp, the company reached out to one of its industry partners Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, otherwise known as Foxconn. Foxconn builds many of the most popular devices on the market such as the iPhone and lots more.

Foxconn agreed to purchase 9.9% of Sharp at ¥550 per share working out to roughly $7 per share here in the states. The total purchase of 9.9% would cost Foxconn $800 million at the previously agreed price. Sharp has continued to decline in revenue since the deal was first brokered meaning its stock price has declined as well. That decline in stock price means that Sharp is likely to sell to Foxconn at a lower price than previously agreed.

The Wall Street Journal reports that on Monday, Sharp stock ended the day 6.1% down selling for ¥186 per share. That is significantly less than the ¥550 per share that Foxconn agreed to pay in March of 2012. The decline in stock price means that Sharp won’t raise as much money as expected with the sale.

[via WSJ]

That apparently leaves just two of Apple’s three intended suppliers actually delivering components, LG Display and Japan Display Inc. Both have already begun shipping to Apple, the source says, though Sharp still does not have an estimated date for when its deliveries might begin.

If true, the delay could be potentially very embarrassing for Sharp and key Apple product manufacturer Foxconn, which recently invested significantly into the display firm. It’s not the first time Sharp has supposedly let Apple down, either. The firm was supposedly bypassed initially for new iPad display supplies after its panels failed to live up to Cupertino’s exacting standards.

Apple has declined to comment on the leaks, but the company is expected to launch the iPhone 5 at an event on September 12. Typically, Apple pushes out its new phones roughly a week or so after the official reveal, and it’s unclear whether Sharp’s problems will change that or create a supply bottleneck in the first weeks of availability.

Sharp’s new President, Takashi Okuda, has added more with fuel to the rumor fire recently with a statement at a press briefing in Tokyo today about the iPhone as the company talked about its latest quarterly earnings. Okuda stated during the talk that shipments of screens for the next-generation iPhone would begin in August. Production ramping up in August does support the rumor of the September 12 unveil event.

I suspect Sharp will be backpedaling on Okuda’s statement soon in a method similar to what Foxconn had to do when its CEO confirmed in the Apple HDTV back in May. Okuda’s statement was short and simple, “Shipments will start in August,” he said. He declined to offer any more specifics for iPhone shipments past that date.

Sharp has been one of three suppliers of iPhone screens to Apple. The other suppliers include LG Display Co and Japan Display. Reuters cites sources claiming that the new screen panels will be four-inches corner to corner making them 30% larger than current iPhone screens. Rumors have also pointed to the screens being longer, but no wider than the current iPhone and the next-generation iPhone is said to be thinner than current devices.

[via Reuters]

The deal will allow both companies to make use of the technologies for ten years, and also guarantee a “patent peace” so that the companies can focus on making money instead of suing each other. Hydis goes on to say how its FFS technology is “superior to other similar wide viewing angle technologies in the market”, taking direct aim at IPS and PLS. Other benefits of FFS include lower power consumption and superior contrast ratios. Hydris even notes that it’s planning to bring FFS to “notebook computers and television[s].”

It’s interesting to see Sharp picking up the license to use FFS technology. Past rumors have suggested that IGZO may make an appearance in products such as the iPad, and recent reports have indicated that IGZO panels will be used for the mythical Apple Television. Sharp looks to be interested in incorporating FFS into its own panels, and if its as good as Hydis says it is, then we could be looking at future displays that are even better than what’s found in the current iPad.

[via ARM Devices]

Just last week, we mentioned that Toshiba was fined $87 million for LDC price fixing, denying the charges with plans to fight the ruling. Sharp, on the other hand, released a company statement saying: “After broadly considering factors such as the U.S. civil lawsuit system and the facts of this case, Sharp has determined that agreeing to a settlement is the best policy.”

Sharp said that the company is still figuring out how exactly the settlement will affect earnings, with plans to report a special loss in the end of the 2013 fourth quarter. Display panels on laptops and mobile phones are some of the most expensive components and price-fixing in the LCD panel industry is not all that uncommon.

[via Verge]

According to the rumors, Apple has turned to Sharp for its display panels in the iPad Mini. On the face of it that makes sense; long-standing Apple production partner Foxconn already holds a significant number of shares in Sharp, a fact which has seen links drawn between the companies and the possibility of an Apple television set.

For the iPad mini, though, it would be Sharp’s smaller panels that are of interest: namely, the IGZO technology screens that went into production back in April. That tech produces thinner, better-quality displays than we’ve seen before, which would allow Apple to create a small, thin tablet without sacrificing all-important usability.

Question is, can Sharp’s screen deliver on what is gradually becoming a selling point across Apple’s range? Retina Display may be a marketing term rather than a specific standard, but Apple has taken the idea of pixels too small to differentiate between at average user-distance and run with it in the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and, most recently, the top-tier version of the 2012 MacBook Pro. True, there are iOS devices still on sale without Retina support, but they’re the older iPhone 3GS and iPad 2, legacies of yesterday’s tech kept on to keep the entry-level price points catered for.

Could Apple launch a non-Retina iPad Mini? And what would such a tablet entail? With the iPhone 4S having a pixel density of 326ppi and the new iPad coming in at 264ppi, the iPad mini would presumably have to slot in somewhere around the latter end of those numbers; that, and keeping roughly the same aspect ratio as both existing devices, would call for at least a 1600 x 12800 UXGA panel, which would deliver 261ppi for the speculated 7.85-inch screen.

Ah, but does Sharp have such a panel, remains the question. According to the April announcement, the company has three IGZO screens: a 32-inch panel running at 3840 x 2160, a 10-inch at 2560 x 1600, and finally a 7-inch at 1280 x 800 for a 217ppi count.

Not quite Retina then, and not 7.85-inches, though of course Sharp could well be playing some Apple-specific cards close to its chest. Given the emphasis Apple has placed on Retina Display branding and technology as the future of its pixel-rich devices, the iPad Mini will need to shape up, resolution-wise, if it wants to join the iOS club.

[Update: John Gruber suggests Apple may well stick with iPhone 3GS technology, cutting the displays into 1024 x 768 7.85-inch chunks]

[Image credit: Ciccaresedesign]

IGZO – or indium gallium zinc oxide – can, in Sharp’s screens, replace amorphous silicon for the active layer in an LCD panel. Sharp announced back in April that it was beginning mass production of various IGZO screen sizes, at the time sparking further speculation of an Apple TV as one of the panels measures 32-inches and runs at a hefty 3840 x 2160.

It’s Sharp’s smaller panels that have the iPad mini hopeful chattering, however; the company said it had a 7-incher running at 1280 x 800 in production as well. That’s slightly under the 7.85-inches of these latest rumors, though presumably not beyond Sharp’s abilities to produce.

According to the Chinese site, Apple’s new iPad mini will be priced at between $249 and $299, making it as much as $100 more than the entry-level Nexus 7. However, in Apple’s favor would be the established tablet software content in the App Store.

[via IntoMobile; via Unwired View]

Feel UX will launch later this summer and will be part of the new Android experience on Sharp’s coming Aquos smartphones. The user-interface will feature personalized lock screens with the ability to browse photos and widgets without unlocking the device. Other features will include a real-time weather display, gender-neutral colors, and a streamlined and curated home screen focused on easy management of apps, widgets, and shortcuts among other things.

Smartphones running Feel UX will launch first in Japan this summer. There is no indication from Sharp at this time when devices running the new user interface might surface in the US or Europe. Check out the video below to see the user interface for yourself.

[via TheNextWeb]

The LC-90LE745U of course also has built-in WiFi and numerous Internet-connected apps for users to have immediate access to online and streaming content. It has Active 3D technology, along with Sharp’s proprietary AquoMotion 240 technology and Full Array LED. “This 90” Class (90-1/64” diagonal) model with brushed aluminum black bezel features our 1080p 3D full array LED panel, delivering one of the most natural, vibrant pictures available,” Sharp boasts.

The world of LED TVs has been the one segment of the competitive TV market that has actually proven to be reliable and truly a new standard for the industry. There is another technology, organic LED or OLED, that is way to cost prohibitive at this point. Other attempts to roll out new TV standards like 3D and Internet connectivity have fallen flat, but the LED push is one that no one has argued with.

Foxconn already has a 10 percent stake in Sharp with an $808 million investment back in March and a 46.48 percent stake in Sharp’s state-of-the-art LCD manufacturing plant in Sakai, Japan. Additionally, the two companies are partnering to open a new plant in Chengdu, China for manufacturing iPhone displays.

The strong alliance puts Foxconn and Sharp in a good position to take on Apple iTV production. Sharp’s Sakai plant is said to be more advanced in LCD manufacturing technologies than that of rival Samsung, while Foxconn has been the primary manufacturing partner for Apple’s iPhones, iPads, and Macs. The Sakai plant also has an exclusive agreement with Corning, makers of the scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass that’s used on devices such as the iPhone and iPad.

[via Apple Insider]

Sharp will reportedly be paid tens of billions of yen in fees to assist in the development of the plant and to help improve “quality management.” Sharp will have to share its technology with Foxconn and buy back a 7.04 percent stake in its Sakai plant owned by Sony, essentially liquidating the partnership between the two Japanese companies.

The move by Sharp to form an alliance with Foxconn comes after a rough year for the TV maker where it saw a net loss of 376 billion yen or about $4.75 billion. It was faced with a surplus of LCD panels and a weak demand for TVs.

Sharp was developing its own IGZO display technology rumored for Apple’s iPad Retina displays, but the screens did not meet Apple’s rigorous standards. The company is also developing a p-Si LCD technology that will debut this year that uses low-temp poly-silicon technology for thinner and lighter LCD screens that also consume less power.

[via AppleInsider]

If the tech sounds familiar, it’s the panel that was rumored for the new iPad but didn’t make the grade due to supply issues, and it has also been hinted at being used in the upcoming Apple television. IGZO allows for more light to be let through the panel, which would mean Apple could have kept the original LED count in the new iPad. Instead, the panels they currently use require twice as many LEDs in order to let the same amount of light through.

Raymond Soneira, CEO of DisplayMate, says: “There’s no question that the iPad 3 is Plan B. They pushed amorphous silicon to a higher [pixels per inch] than anybody else. But the light throughput is not good. So it has roughly twice as many LEDs, and they had to get a 70 percent larger battery.”

Richard Shim, an analyst with DisplaySearch, concurs with the theory, saying that the IGZO panels wouldn’t require such a large battery or the increase in LEDs for light output. Before the new iPad was unveiled, it was rumored that Sharp couldn’t cater to Apple’s demands, with Cupertino instead having to rely on panels from Samsung and LG using the traditional a-Si TFT process.

comScore took a study of 4,000 cellphone users in Japan and found Sharp to be the leading manufacturer with around 23.5% market share. After that, it’s Panasonic with 13.8%, and Sony sitting at the bottom with 7.5%. How about a prominent smartphone manufacturers like Apple? They’re only at 8th place right now with 6.5% market share, but they continue to gain ground, up 1.6% since November 2011.

In terms of platforms, Android is the dominant smartphone OS in Japan, with 61.4% of the market, while Apple has 34.2%. The fact that smartphones are beginning to overtake feature phones for newly acquired devices is an “important shift”, says Daizo Nishitani, vice president of comScore Japan. “Japanese mobile phone users were already highly engaged with their devices, but with the added functionality and higher levels of mobile media consumption we should expect to see significant changes in behavior among the Japanese mobile population in 2012.”

As for exactly what Japanese smartphone users are doing with their phones, email, browsing and apps unsurprisingly rank high on the list of activities. While 1seg functionality is built into a lot of phones, only 18.8% of subscribers use their phone to watch TV.

Jeffries & Co. analyst Peter Misek has long speculated that Apple has an HDTV offering in the pipeline with Sharp as the the manufacturing partner. Rumors of such plans were reignited after the official Steve Job’s biography last year revealed that the Apple co-founder felt he had “cracked the code” to creating a successful integrated TV.

This new panel by Sharp further fuels rumors of a possible iTV and at the least maybe a massive new 32-inch iMac. The Sharp panel’s industry-first implementation of IGZO oxide semiconductors allows for smaller thin-film transistors, which increases pixel transparency and lowers energy consumption. It also uses a proprietary UV2A*3 photo-alignment technology that results in high image quality.

[via 9to5Mac]

That collision of Apple large-scale display research, Sharp technology and long-term Apple production partner Hon Hai investing in LCD production has reignited talk of a serious push into television.

Although some reports have pegged a Q4 2012 launch for the fruity standalone set, not all analysts agree that the TV will arrive this year. Asian research group CLSA fired out a note to investors this week suggesting a 2013 release was more likely, Business Insider reports, citing the Hon Hai Sharp deal and highlighting toughened-glass manufacturer Corning’s stake in the endeavor too:

“We continue to view Apple TV hardware as a 2013 event. The timing of Hon Hai/Foxconn’s equity stake and partnership with Sharp along with Hon Hai Chairman Terry Gou’s separate 46.5% investment in Sharp’s Sakai City plant lends further credibility that Apple TV is in the works. This also follows reports that Apple is investing ~$1.3bn in equipment destined for Sharp facilities. The fact that Hon Hai is investing rather than just procuring panels from Sharp underscores a deeper level of integration which Apple/Hon Hai are accustomed to, increased reliability as Sharp has struggled with iPad3 qualification, and an effort to improve Sharp’s financial position before becoming a more meaningful supplier to Apple. We also believe Corning has an 83% market share at the Sakai facility and would ultimately benefit from improving utilization that is expected to happen over time. Sharp accounted for 10% of Corning’s overall sales and 25% of its display sales in 2011

Most clients agree that a TV is coming; the critical question becomes how the video providers fit into the equation and how apple’s offering would/could differ from current tv’s beyond ios/icloud. Biggest commentary yesterday centered on LG Display as the big loser.”

However, ponderings on Apple’s television plans by greenpois0n - the Chronic Dev Team responsible for various jailbreak hacks of iOS devices – suggest the plot for the home entertainment system might not be as straightforward as we hope. For instance, Apple has long been expected to add App Store access to the current Apple TV set-top box, but according to the hackers underlying memory design harking back to the early iterations of the STB mean currently all running programs share the same space. That introduces some serious stability issues: should a third-party app crash, the whole system would follow.

As we discovered in our review of the new Apple TV, the reworked UI seems almost tailor-made for broader app support, so it’s entirely possible Apple could be working on an update that addresses the memory space issue. Still, there’s plenty of work to be done before the way is paved for a new Apple push for the living room.

That facility already has Sony as a minority shareholder, with 7-percent. After the deal is completed, Foxconn and Sharp will each hold 46.5-percent, something Sharp describes as being essential to “realize stable operation” there.

Meanwhile, a new “global level” alliance will help Sharp be more cost-competitive with rivals, using Hon Hai’s production heft to get products to market quicker and more cheaply. The two firms will work together on other R&D research work and expects cooperation to expand in time, though no specifics are given.

Sharp desperately needs to reduce its expenditure and increase profitability, facing ever-increasing competition from low-cost Korean and Chinese firms. The company revealed an 18.3-percent net loss in net sales for the nine month period ending December 2011, translating to a huge 86.3-percent drop in operating income. Net income was a loss of around $2.5bn.

Although Apple has seemingly had sufficient new iPad stock to grant most stores at least some units on-hand, online availability is still constrained. Online orders are listed as not shipping for 1-2 weeks – down from the 2-3 week delay in the run-up to shipments starting – and the situation is unlikely to be helped by the fact that Apple put the third-gen tablet on sale in a further 24 countries today.

Still, Samsung Electronics is expected to remain the biggest source of new iPad panels this quarter, with both Sharp and LG Display’s new shipments being only of small volumes. Apple can probably use all that the firms can produce, too; sales hit 3m in the opening weekend.

Apple’s taste for the very latest in technology led it to Super High Aperture panels, where extra pixel density is achieved by stacking the layers of transistors and pixels along with an organic film across the top. That requires more backlighting in order to achieve the same brightness as the previous-gen iPad, however, which has a knock-on effect in power consumption. Display experts suggest the extra heat some users have complained of is down to the bigger battery and stronger backlighting LEDs.